another giveaway!

Back in April, when I left you for a few days to walk through historic streets in Georgetown, tour our nation’s Capitol Building and eat at an awesome French bistro some friends had recommended (even though I forgot the e-mail and never got the text message, we landed there anyway, so my friends were right!), you were nice enough to take a survey and tell me interesting things like where your best meal was and about your kitchen fears and what we could do to improve the site.

So today, when I head to the airport and board a plane bound for M-A-I-N-E, where I will spend the last four days I have left of being 26, I thought we’d do something else kind of fun.

The people at Barhyte Specialty Foods sent me four bottles of their Saucy Mama’s Lime Chipotle Marinade, and I get to give one each to four of you. All you have to do is leave a comment here by August 25, 2009, noon, CST, (let’s just say it’s a significant day in the life of yours truly) telling me who you’d like to have dinner with, if you could have dinner with any person, living or dead, and why.

Oh, and if you’re wondering what in the world you’d do with the marinade, should you win, I’ve got you covered there, too. My recipe—aka entry in a food-blogging contest that I will tell you all about—will be posted Monday, the day before the contest ends, while I’m still hiking in Acadia National Forest or eating a lobster dinner or, I don’t know, sitting somewhere and doing nothing but watching the ocean. (I know, I know, but I had to brag a little, right? Pictures and stories when I return, I promise, another year older and wiser.)

How to enter: leave a comment here, telling me the #1 person you’d like to have dinner with—it can be a person who is dead or living, known or unknown; and the reason why.

No purchase is necessary to participate in this giveaway.

I will choose the winners from the qualified participants, and I am the sole judge of adding entries to the list. Plagiarized content, trackback from splogs, spams, non-goal oriented comments and comments containing abusive or inappropriate languages will not be considered.

To award the prize, I must be able to contact you. Please include a valid e-mail address with your comment. Your contact information will not be shared with anyone else. Also, the winners will need to provide a mailing address in order to be sent their prize.

Winners must reply within 1 week from the time notified to claim prize. Otherwise, he or she forfeits the prize, and it will be awarded to an alternate.

Shanna Mallon started Food Loves Writing back in 2008, as a way to remember her grandma and write about her life through food. Since then it's become a place leading her to a lifestyle of eating whole foods, a new home in Nashville and the love of her life, Tim. Follow Shanna on Twitter @foodloves, keep up with Food Loves Writing on Facebook and stay inspired with the monthly newsletter.

This Post Has 31 Comments

Have a wonderful birthday! I think I’d like to have dinner with Oprah. I know she enjoys food, and then later, when I publish my first book, I can be like “Hey Oprah! Remember that great dinner we had? Well I published a book!”

have a wonderful time in Maine. one of my best friends from college is from there. i’ve only been once and i recall it being very pretty. lucky girl, i’ve always wanted to go back. enjoy your bday weekend, i’m so glad you were born.

i’d love to share a meal with two people, one is a rockstar and another is fictional. first, Matt Nathanson. i only discovered him 1.5 years ago and i am absolutely fangirl over him. whenever he’s in my vacinity, i call radio stations to see if they’ll be interviewing him and i do what i can to insinuate myself into the question sessions, offering to bring breakfast (homemade of course!) thus far, no luck. it’ll happen, i will break bread with this man.

second, the hobbits. can you imagine how fun it would be to go out with them? they eat all the time and they’d get trashed, hilarity would ensue. what a perfect way to spend an evening.

First, Jesus- I am sure he would give me all the advice I need to become a better person.
Secondly, my best friend Shelly, who passed away recently- well, I would want to be with her because obviously, I miss her.
Thanks!

It would have to be my great-grandfather whom I never knew but was an Elliot Ness type Treasurey Agent in the early 1900’s and was said to be a bit of a kook/free-spirit. It’d be nice to know where I got it from.

Or Will Shakespeare (the older version) – what a meal that would be! And of course beer/wine would be essential; to chat about how he came to what he came to and his journey as an artists – WOW.

If I could have dinner with anyone, I think it would be Jamie Oliver … and he would make it. I’m trying to get back into cooking and just watching one show with him in it teaches me so much – I can’t imagine how much I could learn having dinner with him!

Oh, and it would have to be at his home, prepared fresh from his garden!

I am so envious of your upcoming vacation! &, needless to say, looking forward to the stories you share when you return

The person I would really like to have dinner with is Jeffrey Steingarten. He is the only person who can make me laugh so hard that the bed moves and my tummy aches when I read his books before I go to sleep at night. I love seeing things from his point of view and I never fail to learn something. Also, from what I hear, the dinner would go on for hours and that suits me just fine. I’d like to add to this that since I live in the UK, there’s no need to consider me for the prize, but I thought I’d share my little dinner dream anyway.

YAY Birthdays! Have fun in Maine! When you return to work, there will be a surprise for you.

I would love to share a meal with Anthony Bourdain. First of all, this means I would have traveled to some really cool location. And second, he would choose something completely unique and amazing. I could be sampling the freshest catch of the day on a fishing boat in France, grabbing an on-the-go plate from a street vendor in Astoria (NY), munching on traditional pub fare at some hole-in-the-wall bar in Ireland, or snacking on a piece of shark in Iceland. Seriously, he’s been everywhere and has eaten everything. I envy his passport and his palate.

As travelers, we could probably talk for hours. And then… I’d ask to be his intern. LOL!

I would like to cook (and eat) a meal with my grandmother. She passed away last year, and while I lived far from her for the last two years of her life, she was an influential chef in my life. So many of my recipes are hers – I use her stand mixer – I think of her when the holidays are upon us and she’s not there to make her famous green bean casserole, brisket, or sweet potatoes. She was always supportive of my cooking habit, even reading my blog and asking me about the recipes I was making as an adult in my own kitchen. I miss her, and I would to have another evening in the kitchen with my grandma.

I’d love to have dinner with my sister Debs. She recently had her second child and I was the only sister that could not make it to her home to be with her and help her. Ironic also because we are the closest in age and we shared a room growing up. Life changes so fast when you are so far away from each other. I would love to sit and eat good food and talk and laugh with her and get caught up and hold her newborn.

I’d want to have my grandpa over for dinner along with my grandma and husband. My grandpa passed away seven months before I met my husband and out of all the important people in my life he’s the only one who didn’t get to meet Chris.

Since other people put down more than one choice, I’d also like to help Giada prepare a meal and then dine at the awesome beach house where they tape Giada at Home.

If I could have dinner with anyone, I would have to choose my Grandma Myrt who passed away just a little over a year ago. Having met her, I’m sure you remember what a special person she was. She was one of the greatest women to ever walk this planet (in my completely unbiased opinion). Exuding hospitality and freely given love, she made everyone who met her instantly comfortable. And everyone who entered her house left well-fed. She always had a great story to tell, true or fictional; and always imparted down-to-earth wisdom. I appreciated her when she was here, but I would love to have dinner with her again.

I’d love to have dinner with Anthony Bourdain. One, b/c I am desperately in love with him (don’t tell my boyfriend) and two, b/c it would probably be somewhere super cool like Beirut or Ashgabat, and he’d make me try some weird crazy foods and I’d eat it b/c it’s Anthony Bourdain. You don’t ever say no to him.

i’ve been thinking about this one long and hard. really. and while i’d like to say someone cool, like john lennon or ghandi or princess diana or johnny depp, i keep coming back to thoughts of people who aren’t famous. who i don’t even know. who can cook an amazing homemade meal with delicious ingredients. somewhere in the south of france, on a farm, in a cottage — perhaps an old lady who has lived a life filled with rich, happy stories, who grows her own vegetables and cools pies on the window sill and loves feeding people. and we’re surrounded by blue skies and green pastures and kittens. yes, that’s what i want.

i think that i would have dinner with my grandmother, mere, who has been gone for several years now. she passed down a legacy of recipes to us, but i think that she added a special touch to each dish that she made! i would love to have dinner with her again.

I am going to say Alice Waters. She was a pioneer for cooking healthy and local foods. She was a woman who went after doing what she believed in, and ended up a HUGE success. Not just monetarily, but she has a reputation in both food quality, and as a supporter of a cause. I want to hear her story, from her lips, so I can be inspired to step out and take risks in pursuing something I love. We would eat lots of yummy vegetables and fresh fruits with homemade ice cream. She would teach me things, and I would soak up every minute of her greatness! … all while thinking of a marinade sample

I’ll have to follow Jennifer H. with a simliar response… my grandma died before I was born. I’d like to have dinner with her for multiple reasons. One is that she was my mom’s mom, and they were very close, just like my mom and I are. My mom tells me all the time that I would have just loved her. Two, she had 6 children and a working husband that she cooked for eeeeeevery morning, afternoon and night. Yikes! That is something that I could never handle, but my mom said she never complained once. She would deserve to be cooked for or to be taken out to dinner!

I’d like to have dinner with my grandfather or Pema Chodron. My grandfather’s one-year passing is coming up in two months. I remember so clearly the many hospital and nursing home visits to watch him struggle to walk, eat and function as a regular human being. I’d stay for a few hours never wanting to leave – waiting and hoping for a miracle or a story or something to hold on to so I wouldn’t have to face the reality that his quality of life was suffering. I’ve wanted to ask him how he makes those longevity noodles for my 25th birthday or ask him what will become of our family now that we’re all over the place.

As for Pema, I’d like to have a meal with her and just observe and listen to her talk. Her talks about meditation, coping with difficult situations and struggles are soothing. I’m curious about her weekend in a Scientology church and how she got out alive. =)

Dinner with Joni Mitchell. I’m a musician, and she was and still is my biggest influence. She has a very zen buddhist way of looking at things, and she admires folks that have passed on that I find also to be inspiring (Henry Miller, Chogyam Trungpa, Georgia O’Keefe), so we would have much to chat about. I heard she’s cynical (a friend of mine calls her Moany Bitchell), as am I, and funny to boot. And also a hell of a cook, or at least she says……I believe her. lol.

One person at dinner…. (it drives me nuts when people say “for dinner”)….. I’d like to say somebody literary, but most of the people I like to read don’t sound like nice people to actually be around. So I’d have to say a terrific friend from college, whom I haven’t seen in years, but I’m sure we’d have lots to talk about for all of dinner and coffee afterwards.

I have loved the comments on this post so much and it’s killing me that I don’t have time to respond to each one personally right now. Please now I have read each response with fascination and that you all continue to interest and amaze. I have absolutely no idea who I’d most want to share dinner with. Maybe all of you.

Giveaway winners will be announced tomorrow (but you can still comment until noon 8/25)!

I know the contest has ended, but I couldn’t leave this post without telling you that you shar your birthday with a very fantastic lady – my momma! She turned 60 this year & was celebrated grandly. I hope you enjoyed your own b-day to the fullest!

MaryAnn, You are so sweet to come answer the question even when the giveaway is over, and I’m honored to know I share a birthday with your momma. It makes me so happy to hear people are celebrating birthdays grandly and to the fullest, which I believe we all should do!